Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia
Doi
Abstract
This paper examines the issues in delivering a university unit of teaching in database security, examining problems in database environment selection and the ability to provide hands on training for students via oncampus and online modes. Initial problems with Linux and then Windows based enterprise database environments prompted the adoption of Microsoft Access as a database tool that was easier to deliver in-class and online. Though Access is file based and has fundamental flaws in its security implementation (within the enterprise context) it can be tweaked to emulate RDBMS level security, allowing students to see how a properly designed security model should operate. The paper shows that Microsoft Access can emulate field-level security with a correctly designed table and user model, but that the database itself should only be used to ‘show and tell’ security implementations, not apply them
